Horror Movie Review: Trap (2024)

Trap is a 2024 American psychological thriller film written, directed, and produced by M. Night Shyamalan.

Philadelphia firefighter Cooper Adams takes his teenage daughter, Riley, to pop star Lady Raven’s concert as a reward for her good grades. There, Cooper notices the unusually high police presence around the concert venue. He learns from a vendor named Jamie that the FBI plans to catch a serial killer known as “the Butcher”. Having learned he will be in attendance. Cooper is revealed to be the Butcher himself. Secretly checking footage on his phone of his latest captive victim, Spencer, in a basement. He steals Jamie’s ID card and learns the passphrase that will identify him as an employee. He uses the card to gain access to a back room and steal a police radio.

Hearing a woman predicting his movements over the radio, Cooper sets off an explosion in a food stand’s kitchen. He uses the chaos to access the roof, where he learns from a police officer that the manhunt is led by Dr. Josephine Grant, an FBI profiler. Confused by Cooper’s behavior, Riley asks him to stay with her. She talks about being chosen as Lady Raven’s “Dreamer Girl”. This girl gets to dance on stage with the singer and receives backstage access, which Cooper believes has the only exit not covered by the police.

Can Cooper outwit the police and escape or is this game over?

Right off the bat, I have to talk about the insane nepotism in this movie. M Night’s daughter is given a very prominent role as Lady Raven, who’s concert is the backdrop for the entire film. At first I was accepting of that, it makes sense and saves money for him to use her. Additionally, she seemed pretty talented. However, as the film progresses she becomes more involved and unfortunately, is just not an experienced enough actor to pull off what is asked of her. She doesn’t show the appropriate level of emotion and fear, it’s very distracting.

Fortunately, everyone else performs great in the acting department, so it’s not a total loss. Josh Hartnett does an awesome job with the layers of emotions he’s going through and his face does all the talking. He plays the psychology of the killer to perfection and the two sides are clearly defined. Later on in the film, Alison Pill does a great job of showing what Saleka Shyamalan was missing and the correct level of terror when being in Cooper’s presence.

I want to clarify again that even though the nepotism is ridiculous, I did mostly enjoy what Saleka brought to the table. When Lady Raven goes on live stream to get help from her fans, I thought that was very refreshing and realistic. As often, modern movies still try to ignore technology exists.

Overall, if you’re interested in serial killers, you’ll enjoy this. It’s an interesting study on the dual nature of a killer. A loving father vs a murderous psychopath. The whole set up is very intriguing and clever, using modern profiling techniques. And by the end of the movie, you almost root for Cooper as he practically winks at the camera at the end. A sequel wouldn’t go a miss that’s for sure.